TCF website meets lender and broker needs

With the March 31 deadline for implementation of TCF fast approaching, mortgage lenders and the FSA may be forgiven for being concerned by recent trade press reports that many intermediaries feel they aren’t prepared - and that lenders should be offering them greater TCF support. However, research by the TCF Lender Forum website (www.tcfinfo.co.uk), which offers practical help and guidance to mortgage intermediaries on TCF, reveals that most of its regular users have high levels of TCF understanding and will meet the end of March deadline for implementation in a substantial part of their businesses.

The website www.tcfinfo.co.uk was launched by a group of specialist lenders last year, after a survey showed that almost half of their introducers didn’t understand what they needed to do to implement TCF. Just eight months after its launch an impressive 90 per cent of research respondents – all of whom are regular users - say they fully understand what they need to do, while 89 per cent expect to reach the implementation stage in a substantial part of their business by 31 March. This is contrary to recent research from other organisations suggesting that intermediaries aren’t ready for the deadline - and a clear indication that intermediaries using the services provided by the TCF Lender Forum are better prepared.

Complaint handling, financial promotion and mortgage sales and advice have come out as TCF ‘front runners’, with over 90 per cent of respondents expecting to have reached or almost reached implementation by 31 March. Meanwhile 82 per cent of respondents that sell MPPI say they expect to have substantially implemented TCF in this area by the deadline. Areas making good, but slightly slower, progress include ‘TCF performance incentives’ and ‘TCF MI’ (Management Information) where 70 per cent expected to meet the deadline. When asked to rank ease of implementing TCF in these areas on a scale of one to five (one is easy, five is difficult), a quarter of respondents chose ‘four’ or ‘five’. The equivalent figures for all other areas were half of this.

Frank Eve, Managing Director of Frank Eve Consulting, which manages the site, says: “Fifteen months ago mortgage intermediaries told us they wanted a ‘one stop shop’ for TCF mortgage information, and user-friendly guides and checklists to help them meet their obligations. This is precisely what we have given them – and it has clearly worked. Users can download and adapt the content for free and I would urge any mortgage intermediary who is confused by TCF to visit www.tcfinfo.co.uk to get the practical help they need.” 

Attitudes towards TCF

When asked about their attitude towards TCF most respondents were either positive or neutral – in almost equal measure: 49 per cent said they thought TCF would benefit their business and that their staff were supportive, while 46 per cent said that their staff were happy to co-operate and understood the logic but didn’t believe it would make any difference as they already treat customers fairly. Just three per cent thought it would have a negative effect on their business while nine per cent said their staff was unsupportive because they felt they were already treating customers fairly and didn’t have time for the additional work.

TCF Info website- a blueprint for the future? 

Of course the proof of any pudding is in the eating, and those lenders supporting the TCF Info website (Money Partners; Rooftop Mortgages; Freedom Lending; GE Money Home Lending; Preferred Mortgages; Southern Pacific Mortgage (SPML); Platform and Future Mortgages) are delighted with the outcome. Three quarters of the survey respondents considered www.tcfinfo.co.uk “a very useful resource for helping me understand what I need to do for TCF and get on with it” and would recommend the site to a colleague. The same number said they thought getting staff to read parts of the website as part of their TCF training a good idea, and 16 per cent said they did this already. Over a half had downloaded pages from the site for own-branding or training purposes. Good reason, surely, to expand the site further?

Eve couldn’t agree more: “The TCF Lender Forum offers a neutral and highly cost-effective platform from which to recommend TCF best practice. This could become the centre for excellence in Treating Customers Fairly if more lenders join the Forum and share the financial support required to enable www.tcfinfo.co.uk to spread its messages as widely as possible – and develop content in further areas.”

Joining the TCF Lender Forum appears to offer a ‘win-win’ solution - after all, the easier lenders make TCF for brokers, the sooner all brokers will be operating from Best Practice Standards and the safer lenders will feel.

To find out more go to www.tcfinfo.co.uk. All guides on the TCF Info website can be downloaded and adapted to suit a firm’s specific business needs, or for training purposes. Intermediaries are reminded on the website that guides are TCF support tools only, and are encouraged to check the detailed requirements with the FSA.